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Florida Legislator’s Aide Is Fired After He Calls Parkland Students ‘Actors’

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The aide, Benjamin Kelly, emailed a reporter with a far-right conspiracy theory commonly shared after mass shootings.
An aide to State Representative Shawn Harrison of Florida was fired on Tuesday after claiming falsely that two students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were “actors that travel to various crisis when they happen,” a common far-right conspiracy theory after mass shootings.
Mr. Harrison’s district secretary, Benjamin Kelly, made the assertion in an email sent from his state account to a Tampa Bay Times reporter, Alex Leary. Mr. Leary, who posted a screen shot of the email on Twitter, had written about far-right attacks on the students fighting for new gun laws in response to the shooting at their school last week, which killed 17 people.
Mr. Kelly’s email referred to Emma González, 18, and David Hogg, 17, two seniors who have been outspoken in the days since the shooting. The Broward County superintendent, Robert W. Runcie, confirmed to The Tampa Bay Times that they were Stoneman Douglas students.
Richard Corcoran, the speaker of the Florida House, announced Tuesday evening that he had fired Mr. Kelly at Mr. Harrison’s request. Mr. Harrison confirmed the firing in his own statement on Twitter, shortly after voting against consideration of a bill that would have banned assault rifles like the one used in the Stoneman Douglas shooting. (A motion to take up debate on the bill failed, 36 to 71, on a party-line vote .)
“I am appalled at and strongly denounce his comments about the Parkland students,” Mr. Harrison, a Republican representing a district north of Tampa, tweeted, adding that Mr. Kelly had made his remarks “without my knowledge.” Mr. Harrison did not immediately respond to a voice mail message at his Tallahassee office, and the voice mail at his district office was full.
In a tweet confirming his firing,Mr. Kelly said that he had “made a mistake whereas I tried to inform a reporter of information relating to his story regarding a school shooting,” and that Mr. Harrison should not “be held responsible for my error in judgement.”
Mr. Kelly did not respond to a Twitter message asking whether he stood by his claim that the students were actors, and whether his “error in judgment” was in believing that or simply in sharing the belief with a reporter. By 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, he had made all his tweets private.
Earlier in the day, as students boarded a bus to lobby state lawmakers in Tallahassee, Cameron Kasky, a 17-year-old junior at Stoneman Douglas, urged his classmates not to let conspiracy theories distract them.
“Over the next couple days, there are a lot of people who are being paid a lot of money to ruin what we are doing,” Mr. Kasky said. “A lot of the people with cameras here are here to help, and a lot of the people with cameras here are here to destroy us.”
“Everybody,” he added, “do not let people try to get under your skin. Do not let the disgusting side of the incredibly helpful media hurt you. Do not let these people exploit you. All they want is for you to say something to bring us down so they can shoot more of us.”

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